Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Gregory, William (d.1467)
GREGORY, WILLIAM (d. 1467), chronicler, was the son of Roger Gregory of Mildenhall, Suffolk, and must have been born late in the fourteenth or early in the fifteenth century. He was a member of the Skinners' Company, and was lord mayor of London in 1451-2. A city chronicle under this date speaks of the papal indulgence that came from Rome in that year as ‘the greatest pardon that ever come to England, from the Conquest unto this time of my year being mayor of London.’ And, though the chronicle in question is continued in the only known manuscript (in Brit. Mus.) two years beyond Gregory's death, this passage leaves no doubt that he was the author down to the year of his mayoralty. He was a wealthy man, and in 1461 founded a chantry in the parish church of St. Anne and St. Agnes, Aldersgate, out of the rents of some property in the parish which he had purchased of a widow named Margaret Holmehegge and two other persons. On 6 Nov. 1465 he made his will, by which it appears that he had been three times married (his wives were named Joan, Julian, and Joan respectively), and had nine grandchildren, seven by one daughter and two by another. Besides providing for these and other relations he left liberal bequests to various hospitals and churches and other charities in the city, including one to the high altar of St. Mary Aldermary, in which parish he then resided, and also for an obit in Mildenhall Church. To this will he added a codicil on 2 Jan. 1466-7, and he must have died a day or two after, as the will was proved on the 23rd of the same month. He was buried in St. Anne's Church, Aldersgate. His chronicle has been printed in ‘Collections of a London Citizen’ (Camd. Soc.)
[Stow's Survey of London, ii. 121 (Strype's ed.); Herbert's Livery Companies, ii 318; Stowe MS. 958 in Brit. Mus.]